You are here

Talking Points, February 3 - 17, 2010

This week's issue of the USC US-China Institute newsletter focuses on the size of the tobacco market and efforts to shrink it. As always, the newsletter alerts readers to China-related events and exhibitions across North America.

February 6, 2010

Print

Talking PointsFebruary 3 - 17, 2010

On an average day, roughly two thousand Chinese die due to smoking. The pain they and their families endure is incalculable. Direct and indirect costs to the Chinese economy are estimated at $5 billion a year.

Two weeks ago USC hosted a presentation by Judith Mackay, for a quarter century one of the leading campaigners to reduce tobacco use in China. Mackay, a Hong Kong based physician is co-author of The Tobacco Atlas. Her energy and impact is such that in 2007 Time magazine named her one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Video of her talk is now available at the US-China Institute website.

China’s tobacco market dwarfs all others – and it is growing. In 1984, an estimated 31% of the population smoked. In 1996, the share had risen to 34%. By 2002, it was 40%. In the US, the prevalence of smoking has declined from 42% in 1965 to 30% in 1985 and 20% in 2007. Relatively few women in China smoke, but some 60% of the men do.

Altogether, China’s roughly 360 million smokers consume 37% of the world’s cigarettes. Because of its dominant position among Chinese smokers, China’s National Tobacco Corporation, a state-owned company, had 32% of the world tobacco market in 2007. Virginia-based Altria/Philip Morris was second at 19%, with London-based British American Tobacco at 17%. Profits from the tobacco monopoly and taxes on tobacco sales generates huge revenues for China’s government. In 2009, these increased by 12% to more than $75 billion. Philip Morris and other multinational firms have set up factories in China, but the total foreign share of the Chinese cigarette market is under 2%.

China is also becoming a major cigarette exporter. Shanghai Tobacco Group, for example, has developed Golden Deer brand for the Taiwan market. The US, though, is by far the biggest cigarette exporter.

Hongtashan is China’s most popular cigarette brand and the state-owned company is looking to increase its international profile. In December it rolled out Hongtashan International 100 with models and an extreme bike demonstration. The blue design was described as “internationally popular.”

Images from hongta.com.

In her presentation, Mackay highlighted several major achievements in China by tobacco control advocates. These include bans on broadcast and print ads, the expansion of smoke-free zones, recognition of the great human and economic costs of smoking, reversing an upswing in youth smoking, and China’s ratification of the 2003 United Nations Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The US, she noted, is among the few countries which had not ratified the agreement.

Getting support from celebrities, public campaigns of various sorts, and making the Beijing Olympic Games smoke free has helped education the public about the hazards of smoking. Unlike earlier generations of leaders, China’s current top leaders are never photographed smoking.

Mao in 1977 propaganda poster.

Deng favored Panda brand cigarettes.

Even so, the challenges remain daunting. Men, especially, have been resistant to anti-tobacco messages. The tobacco industry is large and rich and the addiction is powerful. A 2007 study found that 23% of hospital-based physicians in China smoke, including 41% of male physicians. This was a large improvement over a 1996 study where 61% of male and 23% of female physicians smoked. Still, much has to be done. In the more recent study, 37% of those physicians who smoked did so in front of their patients. In the US, only 3% of physicians smoke.

Because smoking remains so prevalent, it remains attractive to young people. The photo below left is from an anti-smoking website, 我要戒烟 “I want to stop smoking”.com. On the right is a photo from a video that was posted to the web a year ago. The video of the two year old veteran smoker sparked widespread outrage among netizens.

Nonetheless, on Tuesday, a Nanjing newspaper reported that cigarettes are still the top lunar new year’s gift, with 52% of those polled saying they would give relatives and friends cigarettes. Custom rather than knowledge drives this choice. 67% of those polled said they knew that cigarettes were a harmful gift. The ritual of sharing a smoke is one all have observed. The child to the left (found on many web forums) has the routine down.

*******

On Wednesday, we hope you’ll join us as filmmakers Xiaoli Zhou and Brent Huffman screen a rough cut of their film about China in Africa, The Colony, and The Women’s Kingdom (which received several awards and was broadcast by Frontline World). On Thursday, Ran Ran, this year’s US-China Institute postdoctoral scholar will examine reasons for the gap between China’s national environmental policies and regulations and what actually happens across the country. On Feb. 18, Bates Gill, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute will speak on domestic reasons for China’s leaders to take a hard line on relations with the US.

Lunar new year is just a week away and we’ll mark that in the next issue of Talking Points. We hope you find the newsletter useful and we welcome your feedback at uschina@usc.edu.

02/10/2010: "The Colony" and "The Women`s Kingdom" USC Leavey Library auditoriumCost: FreeTime: 6:00PM - 8:00PMThe U.S.-China Institute presents a screening of two short films, The Colony and The Women`s Kingdom, as part of the documentary series. Join both directors for Q&A following the screening.

02/07/2010: Up the YangtzeSpurlock Museum, Knight AuditoriumTime: 7:00PMAsian Educational Media Service presents the screening of a dramatic feature documentary on life inside the 21st century Chinese dream.

09/22/2009 - 06/30/2010: China`s Great Wall: The Forgotten StoryNYC offices of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, New York, NYThe Forgotten Story is a series of historically-based photographs of the Great Wall of China. It is a collaboration between Jonathan Ball, a California based photographer, and David Spindler, one of the world`s foremost experts on Great Wall history.

You have received this e-mail because you have subscribed to receive updates from USCI. If you feel this message has reached you in error or you no longer wish to receive our updates, please click, unsubscribe, and enter "Remove" in the subject line.

Events

Things China Working Group is an informal group to explore research interest in the material networks, systems, economies, media and practices of communication pursued within China or between China and its national and international partnerships. Open only to USC graduate students and faculty.

Things China Working Group is an informal group to explore research interest in the material networks, systems, economies, media and practices of communication pursued within China or between China and its national and international partnerships. Open only to USC graduate students and faculty.